Shogatsu
by Umeko the God
Summary: [Oneshot] New Year's fic! Hikaru and Akira spend New Year's together. Akira learns a little more about his rival. ...That's about it.


Author's Note: I wrote this fic for New Year's. I wrote it at like three in the morning and it jumps around a lot and makes me go "what." But I guess it's pretty good, and people seem to like it.

Now let's see here... Minor vague spoilers for volume 17/end of the anime.

Disclaimer: Hikaru no Go ≠ mine. Also I do not claim to know the Japanese New Year traditions inside and out. I've never even been to Japan ( :( ), much less on New Year's ( :(((((( ).

**Shogatsu**

"Your parents are stuck in Hokkaido?"

"Yes." Hikaru noted absently that Akira's voice sounded oddly nonchalant. "There was a big snowstorm, and they won't be coming home until it's safe to travel."

Hikaru frowned. "How long will that be?"

"They'll probably be coming back the morning of the second..."

"The second!" For some reason Hikaru was concerned, and he closed the book he was reading to focus on the phone call. "But tomorrow's New Year's Eve."

"Yes... So?"

Now he was growing suspicious. "Touya, don't you care that your family won't be around for New Year's?"

"I'll be fine, Shindo."

Bingo. Hikaru knew his rival better than anybody, and that answer told him _exactly_ how Akira felt. Sighing, he said, "Would you like to come to my house for New Year's?"

There was a pause on the other end. "...No, I'm fine. New Year's is a time to spend with family, and-"

"Exactly!" Hikaru cut in. "But _you_ won't be with your family, and you're lame enough as it is." When there was no answer, he pressed on, "Come on, my parents won't mind. My mom _adores_ you."

"But I need to clean the house."

Hikaru rolled his eyes. "Then come over _after_ you clean your house. You can't possibly have plans for New Year's, with your parents stranded in Hokkaido and all."

There was another pause before Akira answered. "...Fine. I'll come over tomorrow evening, if you'll have me."

"Of course," Hikaru grinned. "I'll see you then!"

He was about to hang up when he heard Akira add, "Oh, Shindo?"

He returned the phone to his ear. "Yeah?"

"Thank you."

--

Hikaru stared at the cell phone long after they had hung up. Why the hell had he done that? Seriously, inviting Touya Akira to spend New Year's with them? Part of Hikaru was insisting that he had effectively just ruined his holiday and would come to sorely regret it.

Another part of him, however, was confident that he had done the right thing. If Akira hadn't been invited over, he would have probably just spent the night replaying games, perhaps sitting at the kotatsu reading a book. That was no way to spend New Year's. Holidays were for spending time with friends and family, for having fun and relaxing. Being alone during the holidays was an immensely sad experience.

Hikaru knew that all too well.

--

Akira got up early the next morning in order to start cleaning as soon as possible.

All alone in that huge house, it was going to be a big job. He didn't know where to even start.

If he replaced the tatami mats with new ones first, would it really be necessary to sweep?

He tied his hair back to keep it out of his face as he worked. This would take a while.

At least he didn't have to cook.

--

By the afternoon, Hikaru was wondering if maybe it would have been a better idea for _him_ to have gone over to _Akira's_ house. Then he would have been able to give Akira a hand in the cleaning. Cleaning the Touya house was bound to be a bigger job than cleaning the Shindo house: on top of it being larger, there were also all those tatami mats and shoji doors to replace.

But if it had gone that way, that would have meant that they'd have to cook for themselves, and that was a dangerous task for either of the boys.

Hikaru stared at the clock as he dusted the front hall. It was just a little past three, and his house was almost done being cleaned. He predicted that Akira would show up around seven, just in time to sit down to watch the Kouhaku Utagassen on TV.

He absently wondered if Akira had ever _watched_ TV before. He had a hard time imagining it.

"Hikaru! Are you almost done dusting?"

"Uh, yeah Mom!" Hikaru quickly ran the rag over the furniture. "Almost done!"

--

The doorbell rang at around seven, as Hikaru had predicted, and Mitsuko went to welcome their guest.

"Ah, Touya-kun, it's so nice of you to come!"

"I'm sorry to be a burden upon you," Akira said, bowing. "I hope it doesn't present an inconvenience to your family."

Mitsuko just smiled kindly. "Oh, not at all, it's a pleasure to have you! Here, come in out of the cold... would you like something to drink?"

"See Touya, I _told_ you my mom is practically in love with you!" Hikaru called from the living room.

Akira removed his shoes and made his way to where Hikaru and his father were sitting at the kotatsu. "And a happy New Year to you too, Shindo."

Frowning, Hikaru scooted over to give his rival some room to sit down. "I hate that you're so polite to my parents, you know. It makes me look bad."

"Maybe you should consider learning to have respect for your parents, then?"

"I respect them!" Hikaru retaliated. Matsuo gave a throaty laugh, only to be met with a glare from his son.

"That's exactly what I'm talking about," Akira said pointedly as he seated himself at the kotatsu and accepted the tea that Mitsuko offered him.

Hikaru turned his glare upon the other pro. "Oh shut up," he grumbled. Then he abruptly changed the subject, throwing Akira off-guard (especially since it was such an illogical question). "Have you ever watched TV before?"

--

Hours later, the boys were still awake, playing a game of Go in Hikaru's room. They hadn't meant to stay up all night, but it had somehow turned out that way, as it was starting to close in on four in the morning.

"Hey Touya, let's go out onto the roof!"

Akira stared at his rival incredulously, surprised at the sudden outburst. "The _roof_?"

"Yeah, we can get up there from my window." Hikaru climbed onto his bed and opened the window, leaning outside a bit. "And it faces east, so we'll be able to see the sunrise in a few hours."

Gaping, Akira argued, "But it's freezing out!"

A shrug. "We can bring blankets."

"And do you know how filthy roofs get?"

"We can bring blankets to sit on, too. And we can play Go!"

Akira climbed onto Hikaru's bed, still apprehensive. "I don't know, Shindo." Looking out the window, he saw that the roof jutted out about twenty centimeters from the outer wall. "Are you sure we can get up there? Safely?"

"Sure!" Hikaru assured him as he got off the bed. "I go up there all the time! Sometimes." He disappeared into the hall and came back a few minutes later carrying a pile of blankets. "Touya, get out of the way, I'm going to throw the blankets onto the roof."

Obligingly, Akira rolled back on his heels to watch his friend's antics. Hikaru grabbed a blanket, stuck his head out the window, and, aiming carefully, tried to throw it out and onto the roof.

The blanket caught onto the roof with about half hanging down. Then it slipped off and down into the yard below.

The two boys stared down at the poor mass of cloth for a few moments, saying nothing.

Finally, Hikaru turned around and hopped off his bed. "Forget the blankets, let's at least try to get the goban up there!"

"Shindo. _No._"

--

Half an hour later, the two young pros had somehow managed to get themselves, several blankets, and a magnetic Go set onto the roof. They sat in a content silence, playing a relaxed game of Go, which was really all that they needed.

"This is actually pretty nice," Akira admitted, pulling his blankets closer to his body.

He stole a glance at the small board sitting between them. "Are you going to make a move?"

Hikaru blinked and turned to his rival, looking somewhat confused. "Huh? Oh, yeah..." He placed a magnetic piece on the board and then gazed off into the sky again.

Paying no attention to the move that was just played, Akira instead stared long and hard at the other boy. There had always been something strange about him, and it wasn't just his nonsensical talents, or the notion that he had some connection to Sai. There was something more than that, and it was times like this that only accentuated that feeling, but Akira could never quite figure out what it was.

After a while Hikaru noticed Akira's eyes on him, and he recoiled defensively. "What?"

"Uh..." Akira quickly averted his eyes. "Nothing."

"Jeez, you're so weird, Touya."

Akira smiled slightly, finding irony in the comment. Finally, after another long pause, he asked, "Why did you invite me for New Year's?"

"Because we're rivals," Hikaru huffed indignantly. "And rivals have got to look out for each other."

"I think there must be more to it than that."

"Well then you'd be wrong!" The blond-haired pro stuck his tongue out. "You'd probably do the same for me for just that reason, though I really don't care!"

Akira frowned and decided it would be best to drop the subject. "Whatever, Shindo."

They sat in silence for a long while, looking up at the sky. The night was cold and clear, but it was starting to fade into the gray of morning.

"Actually," Hikaru said at last, leaning back onto the blanket they had laid out, "I just don't like the idea of spending holidays alone. For anyone. Not even you deserve it, Touya."

"Thanks," Akira replied dryly.

"It's not fun," Hikaru sighed. "Not fun at all. It's bad enough feeling some degree of loneliness all the time, but holidays are the worst."

Akira cocked an eyebrow skeptically. "Are you always lonely, Shindo?"

Hikaru shrugged vaguely. "I guess. It's Golden Week when it hits the worst, though."

Akira said nothing, taking this all in. Hikaru, he realized, had just revealed some piece of the puzzle. He knew that it had some relevance to Hikaru and Sai, but he still hadn't gotten the full answer. Should he press the matter more?

Or did he really want to figure Shindo Hikaru out in the first place? Did he want to be kept guessing forever?

Furrowing his brow, he turned back to Hikaru. "Shindo..." he started, but was stopped short.

Hikaru had dozed off, and was now sleeping peacefully, curled up in his blankets.

Akira smiled, shaking his head. "You're impossible," he murmured, throwing one of his own blankets over the sleeping figure.

For the moment, Shindo Hikaru would remain a mystery. But for some reason, Akira didn't really mind, and instead remained by his side, gazing at the horizon, the first rays of the sunrise peeking over the horizon, welcoming in the new year.

-----

Notes:

(O)shogatsu - New Year  
kotatsu - Heated table. With a blanket. Yeah...  
Kouhaku Utagassen - New Year's music special on NHK. It is totally awesome and I love it. 8D  
Golden Week - S00per Japanse Holiday week (in my words). Lasts from around April 29 to May 5.  
Traditionally, the whole house is to be cleaned on (or by) December 31, to welcome in the new year freshened.

I meant to mention other New Year's traditions, but I forgot. Which was probably for the best, anyway. :D;;

Happy New Year!


End file.
